On Saturday, nine teenage CHECT members went on a VIP tour of the Global radio studios in London, home to stations like Capital, LBC and Heart. Here 16-year-old Harry Harrison gives his account of this fabulous day…
On Saturday, myself and eight other teenagers met with CHECT support worker Lesley Geen and CEO Patrick Tonks in Leicester Square, right next to the Global studios. We were led inside and were toured around the studios by Kara, who, of course, worked for Global.
Inside were the Global stations of Capital, Classic FM, Smooth, LBC, Gold, Radio X and Heart FM. We first stopped by Capital where we were able to go into the studio and speak to the presenter and producer of the ongoing show (whilst the music was on and they could talk to us).
Samih was extremely pleased as he is a BIG fan of almost all the Global stations and got a picture with the presenter, whilst the rest of us opted to just get a picture with some headphones on. The presenter was then invited, by Samih, to our rooftop pizza lunch later on.
Kara then showed us the other studios of Capital Xtra and Radio X, which we weren’t able to enter at that time. Christopher noticed the LBC studios and tried to get a photo of Jacob Rees-Mogg presenting his show but, unfortunately, he wasn’t seen.
We travelled in the lifts once again to the floor housing Classic FM and Smooth Radio. Classic was Lesley’s personal favourite because Bill Turnbull was presenting, it was also my favourite because I knew who Bill Turnbull was.
We managed to enter both the Classic FM and Smooth. The host of Smooth, Margherita Taylor, took down all our names and shouted us all out individually on air! Samih had invited both sets of presenters to our lunch.
We also managed to get inside the Heart FM studio and speak to the presenter who showed off the fancy walls that can turn into a TV to watch the football.
We ate our pizza lunch on the roof terrace and the view from it was fantastic. Unfortunately, the presenters Samih invited didn’t join us. Theo’s mother had made us some amazing Greek pastries; the box had a post-it note saying “for everyone” so that Theo didn’t eat them to himself!
After lunch we ascended in the lifts to a room with a large table and discussed the role of a new Teen Focus Council (TFC) for CHECT. The details cannot be disclosed here, as it is a top-secret operation.
The day was amazing. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the start of a teenager-run council as a part of CHECT looks excellent for making events and support for teenagers, and those a little younger, even better than they already are.
We all managed to meet new friends and reunite with old ones. A BIG thank you to all at Global for having us and a MASSIVE thanks to those at CHECT who organised it, and Lesley and Patrick who accompanied us. It was great and we all look forward to the next day out!
For more information about the Teen Focus Council, please contact Lesley Geen, CHECT support worker, on 020 7377 5578 or info@chect.org.uk.